


It's a Family Thing

by ChestnutPatronus14



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Developing Relationship, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 03:50:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16400801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChestnutPatronus14/pseuds/ChestnutPatronus14
Summary: When someone sees their soulmate in person, their eyes turn from gray to the color they were born with.  Every child is born with an eye color, it fades to gray, only to turn back to the color when they meet their soulmate.  Yuuri’s always wondered who his soulmate was, wondering what would happen and when the day would come that his eyes would meet those of his soulmate, and the realization that the color changed would happen, would it be like how his parents met?  Then, he met Victor.  Everything changed that day, more ways than one.  And despite the fact that his eyes turned back to brown, Viktor’s remained gray.  What was going on? Was Victor his soulmate? Or is there more at work than meets the eye?Part of the Victuuri Big Bang 2.0.





	It's a Family Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Artwork by [ estellie ](http://estellie.tumblr.com/post/179398503356/for-victuri-big-bang-3-i-worked-with)

Dealing with everything that had happened the last time that he had skated in public had been rough for him, it had made him want to retire from skating all together. Yet it was memorizing the routine of Victor’s, practicing it on his own for hours upon hours that had made him at least feel closer to his hero in a manner that he could never quite verbalize. It was as if a weight was lifted off of his chest whenever he would skate to the routine.It had never really been his intention to show anyone, even when he returned home, going and skating…He had just wanted to show those who had known him longest that he could still do what he longed too, he could fly around on the thin blades as good as he had when he was still starting out. 

To sail along the ice to the music, it had always made him feel like he was important, like there was more to life that what he was experiencing within the confines of his heart.And Yuuri? He was the sort to believe in fairy tales, he always had been. How one day he would meet Victor, look into his eyes and see them turn from that steel gray to some other color. That was how the world worked after all; when someone met their soulmate their eyes would turn from gray to the color they were born with.Yuuri guessed his own would be brown, his parents’ were so it would only make sense for him.

That was what he hoped at the very least, that one day, one fateful day he would meet his hero, the man who had inspired him to step onto the ice, and standing there looking into Victor’s eyes, he would see something incredible, that moment when he saw Victor’s eyes turn from gray to some other color.

Yuuri had not wanted anyone to see him skate Victor’s routine so perfectly especially after what happened at his last competition. When he had learned that it was on the internet for everyone to see, he had shut his phone off, hid it away from the world so that no one could contact him.How could this have happened? If Victor ever saw it there would have been no way that he would ever want to meet him.His career, his life was over.

Or….he had thought so until he had been tackled by the fluffy poodle licking at his face. His heart had felt like it would explode from his chest as he rushed down the halls of the hot springs, opening up the door to find Victor in the tub.It was what he had been waiting for, what he had dreamt of.He was going to meet his hero, meet his inspiration and his reason for skating. He opened his mouth to say something when Victor stood suddenly holding out a hand and their eyes met.

Nothing.

Nothing happened.

Sure in the back of his mind he realized that it was a long shot, and that there was probably no way that he could ever be the sort of person that an incredible man like Victor would ever give a second glance.Everything after that moment was a blur to Yuuri, whether it was the exposure to the steam from the hot springs, or the reality that his this entire fantasy he had developed in his mind was suddenly gone, he didn’t know.

It was when he was finally alone, in the bathroom brushing his teeth before bed that he looked into the mirror. The toothbrush fell from his hand, toothpaste clinging to his lips.Shaking fingers touched his reflection in the glass.No one had said anything to him about it.Not a single person.And maybe they had known something that he hadn’t.The person staring back at him in the mirror, messy black hair and toothpaste covered mouth, had brown eyes, not gray.

It could not be real.None of it could be real.It had to be in his own imagination that his eyes had changed color.How was it possible?It wasn’t like he had not seen Victor before, he had seen him several times in fact.

The most recent having been just after he had lost at his last big competition, Victor had asked if he had wanted a photo, and- And then what? Why had it not happened then?

It came to him suddenly as he ducked his head the entire way back to his bedroom. It was because while he had looked at Victor, their eyes had not met.The second he had seen his fellow skater turn towards him, he had glanced away shuffling off in shame and regret.

Perhaps it had been for the best that they hadn’t looked at each other then, Yuuri was not certain that he would be able to face Victor after his humiliating performance without feeling sick. Not the best way to make a first impression on someone.

And if their eyes had met there, it would have been public, very public. There had been media hovering everywhere and other skaters.Everyone would have been there to watch as nothing happened.

Yuuri slunk back down the hallway, settling back down on his bed. The walls of his room were his shrine to Victor, posters that he had collected and lovingly displayed, care given to the placement of each one.His favorite poster was across from his bed, so all he had to do was turn his head, and he’d be able to see it.They had once brought him some level of comfort to him.Now?

All thoughts disappeared from his mind as he stared towards the poster.What was he going to do?He couldn’t talk to his parents about this, and if any of his friends saw they’d just tease him.Wouldn’t they?No, that couldn’t be right.

What he needed to do was sleep, his mind was racing far too much for him to be able to think clearly on the situation.Maybe in the morning things would look better, or at least he’d have some sort of idea of how to deal with everything.

* * *

 

It had been several days since Victor had arrived at Hasetsu and Yuuri’s entire world had been flipped upside down.His days were filled with exercise, his goal to get back down to his weight from before his last competition.It wasn’t that difficult for him to get back into the routine of training and all the old habits that he had developed back when he worked with his old coach.

But the more time he spent with Victor, the more time he spent wishing he had someone to talk to.It had become a skill of his to keep his eyes either down towards the floor or hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. 

There was one person he though the might be able to talk to.

“Yuuri!” The familiar sound of his friend’s voice brought a smile to his lips as Yuuri gazed at the computer screen where Phichit and his hamster were looking back at him. “What’s with the sunglasses man, you’re inside.”

“Oh it’s nothing, how are things going with training?” Yuuri was attempting to deflect the conversation away from his eyes by asking about training. It normally would work, or it had in the past when he needed to avoid something.

“Oh no you’re not getting off the hook that easy man. I saw that video of you online skating? Victor’s there and training you? Some big competition coming up?

“Well yeah but-“

“Yuuri, take off the sunglasses.”

Yuuri wrinkled his nose, unhappy about the fact that his friend wanted to see. Actually, unhappy did not describe what he was feeling.Disappointment, shame, embarrassment. So many different emotions were flooding through his system that he could not even comprehend what each of them meant or where they all came from.

He lifted his trembling fingers, pulling the sunglasses from his face, chancing one quick look at Phichit. His friend’s eyes were wide with surprise.“Wait, you and Victor?”

“I don’t know.”

“How could you not know? You’re eyes changed when you saw him right?”

There was a long moment where he did not say anything, the silence deafening.“But his didn’t…”

Yuuri watched as through the screen Phichit’s eyes widened as the shock and gravity of the situation took over. For as far as anyone could remember, there had never been a case of two soulmates where one’s eyes did not change color when they saw each other.Yuuri had simply believed with all of his heart that it just meant he was strange, that somehow he loved Victor enough to consider him his soulmate, even if Victor did not feel the same for him.

And then he was crying, tears leaving wet trails down his cheeks unable to help it. It was devastating to him, as if his world had just suddenly ended. Pressing the heel of his palm against his eyes, Yuuri desperately tried to stop himself from crying.It was as if now that he had started, he could not control the overflowing emotions. 

So much had happened during the past year, the humiliating defeat he had suffered that had been his main reason for wanting to retire from skating to begin with, to missing his family and friends back home in Japan yet knowing he had left them down.The first time he had skated something and had nailed it, he had caught the eye of the person who he had been in love with since he was younger. 

And Victor was not meant to be his.Fate was cold, cruel.To bring him so close to what he so desperately wished for only for them to push him away at the last moment, his fingers reaching out towards Victor.Calling to him, asking him to join him, but there was nothing there, his words falling on deaf ears.

“Say the word, I’ll ditch and go see you.”

Phichit’s voice seemed to bring some sense of logic back to his mind, focusing on it, on the concerned look upon his friend’s features. “N-No.I know how much the cup means to you. Don’t blow it cause of me.”

“Be worth it. You are worth it Yuuri. He’ll see that. Impossible not to.”

Yuuri managed a half smile, resting his chin on his arms as he looked at the screen, the image blurry without his glasses. “Thanks Phichit.”

* * *

 

Everything had happened so fast, his entire world changing that it was if Yuuri was moving within a fog, his feet dragged down by mud sucking at his shoes.The only time he felt he was able to breathe was when he was skating, and even that he was not able to do right away, Victor had forbidden him to skate until he lost the weight.

His relationship with food had been complicated after his loss and the humiliation that the entire world had seen had taken its toll.He sought comfort from food, being so far away from home it had been easy for him to just give it all away.In his mind, he was done with skating, not planning to return the following season. So why keep up with the training he had been doing?He had not ever expected to be skating again, he had not expected for Victor to show up and coach him. 

And he certainly had not expected for his eyes to have turned brown when he finally set his gaze upon the man who he had idolized for years.

Maybe it was because of everything going on that Victor had gone with him to the beach Makachin following behind them them. Maybe Victor just wanted to take some time to speak to him because of the overwhelming anxiety that was consuming him.If he lost the competition, that would be it, there would be no future for him in skating.If he did win by some miracle, then Victor would stay there with him, would coach him.It would be more than he could possibly imagine.

His brown eyes stared out at the gray ocean, all the colors seeming muted in the dining light. “What is it you wish me to be Yuuri? Your coach?”Yuuri said nothing, hugging his legs to his chest. “A sibling perhaps?”

“No.”

“Ah so your lover then.”

“I don’t know.” Did he want that? Was it possible to be so in love with someone who he had barely know for more than a couple of weeks? The stupid soulmate sign aside, Yuuri was aware that he had always had a crush on Victor since the first time that he had seen him skate, soaring across the ice as if he was the king of his domain.

But Victor hadn’t said anything to him about the color of his eyes. Sure, he had been doing a pretty damn fine job of hiding the color from everyone, even if people were starting to question his sunglasses that he was now wearing everywhere. Was it really so hard to imagine that Victor simply hadn’t noticed what was going on?That everything seemed to have changed between them.

Yuuri glanced over towards him, taking in those subtle details that had always captivated his attention.The way his hair fell over his face, the amount of expression and emotions in those gray eyes of his, and the small gentle smile on his features as they sat there, admiring the world before them.The anxiety was sky rocketing in the pit of his stomach, enough that he had to look way from Victor.

If he lost the competition, the chances were that he would never see Victor again. He had to win, at the very least, even if it was so he could have a bit more time with Victor.

Then there were hands reaching out towards him, plucking the sunglasses from his eyes causing Yuuri to look directly at Victor.His features flushed, eyes darting down towards the sand beneath his shoes.But there it was again, that gentle, soft touch lifting his chin as Victor placed his glasses, his normal glasses, back upon the bridge of his nose.

“There’s the Yuuri I know.No longer hiding.”

Something in the way Victor spoke sent his heart into a frenzy, pounding hard enough he was certain Victor could hear it.The gentle touch and soft words.It had made him feel as if he was important, someone special to Victor and not just another skater.That he was worth something.

Yuuri had to win the competition, and he would do whatever he could to win.

* * *

 

He had done it.He had made it through the competition without Victor being there with him.It was something that he had not thought possible. Even without Victor, he had skated for him, all he wanted was for Victor to notice him, to be proud of him.God he knew he was in love with him, not sure when it had happened. It had been slow, a process from the start of the beginning until that point where he was in the air port.

Then, Yuuri saw him, Victor, standing on the other side of the glass that seemed to keep them apart.Slowly, he started to walk, following Victor as the other did the same.The pace quickened, until they were both running towards the end of the hall when Yuuri was able to turn and launch himself into Victor’s arms.Everything about him was warm and familiar to him now, the scent of his shampoo, or how he somehow seemed to remind him of freshly fallen snow.

To him, in that moment, Yuuri no longer cared if Victor’s eyes had remained gray while his own had shifted to brown. It didn’t matter what fate said, he knew how he felt, and that he had fallen so desperately in love with this man that while Victor was away, it was as if a piece of his soul was gone.

It had been the hardest thing he had ever done, going to Victor and telling him that he could go, that he would be fine without him even if he had not thought he would at the time.All he had had to hold onto was the hope that he would be able to make it through, that somehow, he could prove to Victor that he could stand on his own two feet.That he could skate for him, even without his eyes following his every move.

It would be a while before they were back in the hotel room, sitting across from one another on the beds. Yuuri curled his hands into fists, eyes focusing on the gold ring upon his finger.It had taken a lot of courage for him to even express to Victor that he wanted to sit and talk ate him about everything that had been going on in his mind.The whirlwind of emotions and thoughts that had steadily consumed him, causing the anxiety that he had started to be able to handle on a regular basis to rocket towards the moon.

“Victor I-“

“I know.”

Yuuri looked up, eyes widening as he stared at the other skater. “You know?”

“Of course I know Yuuri, I saw your eyes change that day when we met.”There was that smile that would cause Yuuri’s heart to stop beating. “They were beautiful, like a crisp autumn day.”

“But…I don’t understand.Yours-“

“Didn’t change?” Victor raised an eyebrow and sighed. “It is a family thing. It does not happen for anyone from the Nikiforov line.We have no explanation for why, just that is how it has always been.”

Then Victor was moving forward, kneeling so he was between Yuuri’s knees, hands coming up to hold his face. “I love you, Yuuri Katsuki.”


End file.
